WELCOME TO S.J.P.'S FRESHMEN HONOR'S PROGRAM
The summer reading for AP World is "A History of the World in 6 Glasses"by Tom Standage
This is a cultural history of the world and its main beverages during different periods of time. The book is organized chronologically, allowing each beverage to tell the story of a period through local stories, global processes, and connections. In studying drinks, as with food, class and social structure are emphasized allowing a social historical perspective.
Task: Each student will create a Mini- Notebook / Journal/ Scrapbook
(your choice) based on "A History of the World in 6 Glasses" - This project will be collected by Mr. Turano the first full week of classes.
Books may be purchased on-line or at a local bookstore. Be sure to call ahead to see if it is in stock. It is available on Amazon.com
Project: Illustrated Journals (Not an on-line journal)
1. There are five key themes which emerge for each drink which you will include in your journal. You will be asked to identify how each of these themes emerge for these six beverages. This is up to you how you want to present these five themes for each libation. Be as creative as you wish.
Five Themes: Food and Nutrition, Medicine, Currency, Social Class and Status, and how this drink led to Change
2. Divide the journal into sections andwrite / draw/ collage / cartoon what you learned based on these five themes
Example - Beer is the first drink introduced. Below are the topics you would want to write or draw about. This should be no more than 2 pages for each beverage.
- Why was beer considered nutritious?
- How was it used as medicine?
- How did beer determine social class status?
- How was it used as money?
- How did beer change society?
3. Map the beverage. This can be created by hand or printed off of the internet. This should appear at the beginning or the end of each beverage in your journal.
For each map, label where the drink first developed, where it was sent, and where it was consumed. Be sure to create a legend or a key to identify origin of drink, trade route,and what regions consumed this.
My goal is to have you be able to answer the following questions: As you think about what is important keep in mind these questions
- How does the story of each glass open up your understanding of world history and trade? How did it benefit and or hurt both producer and consumer?
- What did you learn about geography and resources as you studied these different beverages?
- What did you learn about class and social structure as well as religion in studying beverages (and/or food)?
- How do these new drinks become accepted in part through their supposed medicinal value?
Remember this is an enjoyable book - do not get stuck on all the names and figures mentioned throughout the book. The purpose of this assignment is to familiarize yourself with regions of the world along with the resources and trade routes that developed as a result. These six beverages played an important role in empire building and I want you to understand that geography is one of the most important determinants of power.
Any questions or concerns please contact me at
Be sure to include your name in the subject area
You may also find a digital copy of AP World History 9 Summer Reading Assignments on my website:
Click on the “AP World 9: Summer Reading”link on the left side of the Homepage